Amorges (top photo) is the Commanding General of my Achaemenid Persian army, which some of you may have seen on display at either last year's Wells County Historical Society Collectors' Show in August, or at the county museum during December.
The Achaemenid Dynasty essentially built the Persian Empire, emerging as vassals of the Medes at the time of the breakup of the Assyrian Empire between 625-609BC, and then winning their independence from the Medes in 552BC, under King Cyrus II ("The Great"). The Achaemenid Persian Empire lasted until Alexander "The Great" conquered it in his campaign of 334-331BC.
From a military standpoint, the Empire began to decline following the unsuccessful invasion of Greece in 480-479BC. This invasion was "highlighted" by the battles of Thermopylae (which was the theme behind the movie "300") and Plataea, which effectively destroyed the Persian invasion plans.
I'm going to throw this next bit of background in, as westerners tend to overlook it, just focussing on the Persian invasion of Greece, and casting the Persians simply as the "bad guys". (The Persians after all were the ancestors of the Iranians, who aren't exactly "flavor of the month" these days politically in the west.)
In fact, the first real act of the Greek/Persian Wars occurred in 498 when the Athenians sent troops to help Greek settlements in the Persian province of Ionia revolt, and embarked on a particularly destructive rampage. The unsuccessful (or perhaps simply aborted, depending on your sympathies) Persian expedition against Athens in 490BC was an initial reprisal for this action, with the full scale invasion mentioned above becoming the "repayment" in the light of this failure.
If, therfore, you look at the Greek action of 498BC as an olden day 9/11, then perhaps the Persians weren't quite so unjustified in seeking retribution with their subsequent invasion attempts?
The Persians used heavy chariots, pulled by four horses, in two ways. They could be a mobile command post for their King (or his appointed general), which Amorges is doing in the top photo, or as an early version of today's "suicide bomber". The chariots had sharp scythes extending from the wheels, and also the horses harnesses, which you can see better in the second photo.
They would line a group of chariots up in a line opposite the most densely packed formation in the enemy army, and then just charge at top speed. If the enemy soldiers avoided being trampled by the horses, then they were cut to pieces by the scythes. When the impact occurred of course, it was pretty devastating for the chariot (and horses and men also, and unless the driver jumped off before the point of impact - which wasn't exactly the safest thing to do either - he would probably be killed in the collision, in the same way you would be if you drove a car into a brick wall.)
The chariot charge would be followed up by either horsemen or foot soldiers, who would then use the chaos caused by the crash to catch the enemy troops unprepared for another fight. They can do a lot of damage if you use them correctly, but you only get one shot with them!
Cyrus II is reputed to have fielded as many of 300 chariots in one of his battles. They were not taken on the invasions of Greece, as they required flat open ground on which they could build up speed during the charge, and Greece is very hilly. Also the space they occupied on either a boat, or even in an army marching over land was considerable.
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